PORTSMOUTH — Police are warning area residents to be wary of a couple who have been targeting elderly female shoppers and stealing their purses and other personal property.

On Jan. 11 Officer Seth Tondreault took a report of a stolen wallet from Ocean State Job Lots on Woodbury Avenue.

The reporting party informed the officer that when she went to pay for her purchases at the register, she found her wallet missing. The victim, an 83-year-old woman, thought she left her wallet at her house and returned home.

After she could not find her wallet at her residence, she called the banks linked to her financial accounts and learned that several fraudulent transactions had posted on her account(s) in excess of $5,000.

These transactions occurred within an hour of the alleged theft of her wallet.

Further investigation revealed the victim was approached by a black woman while she was shopping in the store. The victim reported this female engaged her in a brief and random conversation. This subject was identified by surveillance and was subsequently identified at a nearby store where one of the fraudulent transactions occurred.

The female suspect was also believed to have been accompanied by a black man.

The Portsmouth Police Department is actively working with the Portland, Maine, Police Department and Greenland, N.H., Police Department on this case. The Portland Police Department took a similar report involving the same suspects and similar actions.

This police press release is two-fold in purpose: first, to deter further thefts by informing the general public of the operating procedures of the alleged suspects developed during the course of police investigation, and secondly, to generate information that leads to the arrest of the involved parties.

The suspects have consistently done the following:

■ Targeted elderly female patrons who are shopping by themselves.

■ Approached and engaged these patrons in random and innocuous conversation to distract them.

■ A second party lifts wallet or purse from carriage.

■ Suspects leave the store and quickly begin to make purchases on credit cards/debit cards.

The information obtained during the police investigation illustrates a trend of completing these acts near main roadways/highways and areas of condensed commercial businesses. This affords the suspects an easy method to fraudulently obtain goods and to leave the area.

If anyone has any information they are asked to contact Officer Seth Tondreault, Portsmouth Police Department, (603) 610-7613, tondreaults@cityofportsmouth.com, or can report tips anonymously through Seacoast Crime Stoppers, (603) 431-1199.